Bitcoin & Litecoin Mining Physical Setup

This is a video of my Bitcoin & Litecoin / Scrypt coin mining setup. It is powered off of both 120 volt and 220 volt North American US/CDN power, although I may eventually run it mostly off of 220 to free up the 120 volt split circuit for items that cannot run 220 volt (routers, hubs, etc).

This setup is located not far from Ottawa, Ontario in Canada in my basement. I will note, that it provides quite a bit of welcome additional heat to the basement while mining away for crypto currency.

I want to emphasize there isn’t any advantage to going 220 volts other than making the physical setup easier and more economical material wise (wire and breakers). Using 220 Volts DOES NOT save energy, and uses the same billable wattage/kilowatts per hour.

The house has a 200 Amp service, however our water and house heating is oil with woodstove supplement. This leaves lots of available amperage to upgrade and add more circuits to draw power if I ever max out 30 amps 220 volt.

The 220 volt plug is wired to a 30 Amp breaker, and the 120 volt plug wired to a split 20 amp breaker (each outlet has 20 amps of power with a common shared neutral; an overloaded outlet will trip both off).

The armoured cable to the outlet boxes was overkill for the setup, but was a cheap upgrade due to the short distance from the panel. Armoured cable provides protection for the wire, and does serve as a secondary ground (however you must use the copper ground in all cases). If you use armoured cable, you must terminate the ends of the armour with plastic protectors for the wires inside which must be visible for inspection after securing the cables.

Check your computer power supplies to ensure they are 220 volt compatible before considering this setup, and consult an electrician and your local code & inspection requirements prior to making modifications to your panel.

The hash rate for the Litecoin rigs is over 5000 Kh/s using 6 X 7970 Saphire, and 4 X 7950 Gigabyte. I custom made the frames myself, and I am testing different designs for supporting the graphics cards, reducing strain on power cables, and compacting the rigs while balancing airflow requirements.

The hashrate for the Bitcoin is 557 Gh/s using a BFL Jalapeno 7 Gh/s and a KNC Miner Jupiter 550 Gh/s (Oct version).

The shelving was a customized yet off the shelf solution that came from Solutions – Your Organized Living Store in Ottawa, Ontario